The Future Of Driving - Is It Driverless?

Just a few years ago the prospect of driverless cars seemed more like science fiction than a plausible reality, however, given the rapid advances in technology, the sight of autonomous vehicles on Britain's roads may soon become a genuine reality.

In whatever way you look at it, there pros and cons for driverless cars. For some, the prospect of no longer being an integral part of the machine is not something to savour, especially for drivers who enjoy the pure thrill of driving. However, there could be a compelling case for the introduction of such technology, especially when it comes to a safety and traffic congestion point of view.

Whilst even today the technology is still in relative infancy, manufacturers around the world have been investing vast sums of money and research and development time to refine this technology. This has led to real-world tests of the technology with manufacturers such as Volvo, Tesla and Audi leading the way with this development.

Some of this technology has already made its way into the aforementioned manufacturer's products, for example, Tesla and it’s autopilot system. Whilst this isn’t full automation as such, this is a considerable step towards it and allows the driver to, all intents and purposes, to drive completely hands and feet free. The system will automatically monitor and measure the distance to the vehicle in front and modulate the brake and throttle accordingly to ensure that a safe distance and driving speed is maintained. It is believed that in a world with all vehicles featuring this functionality, severe traffic congestion could be more easily managed and safety aspects increased.

The logic surrounding this is, that by being connected, autonomous vehicles could react sooner to events as they happen. If there is an accident further up the road, autonomous vehicles could receive an advance warning and start to slow accordingly.

By being connected, a safe gap could be maintained to the vehicle in front and when coupled against a vehicle staying in lane, traffic flow could be potentially improved. The safety element revolves around the fact that driverless vehicles could potentially react sooner to hazards as they arise and help to remove driver error if the driver is distracted in any way.

Despite some high profile accidents whilst these systems have been on test, a majority of these seem to have had additional elements involved which may have still resulted in an accident had a driver been physically at the controls at the time.

Whilst there is still work to be done to fully bring this technology to the masses, it only seems a matter of time before we see it on our roads as the case for its introduction becomes more and more compelling. The question is though, given some of the challenges mentioned above, will the level of automation be full or partial? Time will tell.

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